OMG, that sounds a lot like my daughter when she was little. Way back when, she hated reading. Then my mother got her the first HP. She didn't want to even try that either, but she got talked into it. After a couple chapters, she was hooked. Now, she reads constantly.

OMG!! (Note: I never say "OMG"... not in any form. Well, except for the fact I just did, but we'll disregard that. Movin' on...)

For years I had refused to get swept up in Harry Potter Mania. I understood -- and had no doubts -- that the Potter series was well-crafted, but I didn't like all the hoopla involved.

One day at the office, there had been news about one of the newer books coming out and people around me were talking about it with great enthusiasm. I mentioned to a friend -- who happened to have been the ignition for the excitement that morning -- that I had never read the Potter books. She couldn't believe it. I told her that I was sure that they were entertaining reads and whatnot, but all the hype kind of turned me off. (I hope I'm not coming across as a snob, because that is totally not me...)

She told me that she was going to bring in the first one and I had to read at least the first fifty pages! (Thus, the aforementioned "OMG"...)

It was summer and I love being a beach bum -- the beaches along Lake Michigan on the MI side are absolutely incredible in the summer, which unfortunately only lasts about two months here -- so I decided to make it my "beach book" for the time being.

That was a horrible decision. See, I was truly captivated by the book (and easily exceeded the promised fifty pages) and couldn't put it down. The problem with that, the reason it was a horrible decision to make it my beach book, was that I can only read while lying on my stomach. I prop myself up with my elbows and read. If I'm on my back, I can't hold the book above me without my arms getting tired very quickly. (Stupid need for blood.)

So I was getting burned on my back and my stomach remained pasty, all because I couldn't stop reading Harry Potter, which I vowed I would never allow myself to get into. :)

Hopefully you can see that I really, really needed to comment on this!!

I did the SAME THING! I tried at age 8, but he refused (and only wanted to read Pokemon books, God help me). But then at 9, I said this is what we'll be reading before bed. "No!" "Yes" and then each night I'd read a chapter and then after a few nights he'd read two more afterwards and I'd have to catch up on the reading while he was in school (as I hadn't read the books yet either).

You go, Mom! I bought the first book from a garage sale or something and put it on daughter's shelf. It sat there for a long time. It wasn't until her friends were on book 4 or 5 that she picked up book one....then it was a race for us. Stealing the book from each other and tearing through the others.

I loved reading all these comments, too! I must admit, I haven't read any Harry Potter books, either. (sorry..don't me mad at me!)I have a couple of reasons. 1) I don't care for fantasy/sci-fi books. 2)I have SO many books I've purchased that I still haven't read, etc!! :)

Not having anyone to force to read HP is the one and only regret of my childlessness.

I've tried to get my 9 year old niece into it, I've read HP to her before bed and she likes it, she really does, but the time between readings is sooooo long, it's never caught on. (God forbid her mother the 7th grade reading teacher encourage her to read anything, don't get me started.)

Now I'm targeting my 8 year old nephew. He's always been a great reader, but he struggles with context. Still, I'm convinced that if I can get him into HP, he'll be totally hooked. I'm just worried about pushing him too fast. If he gets frustrated, he'll give up and won't go back to it until he's 80.

my eight-year-old is in the middle of the goblet of fire now! it took me FOREVER to get him to read something other than rick riordan books (who rocks- but he had gotten to the point of rereading the lightning thief four times) it's so much fun to see them fall in love with books isn't it? :)

My daughter is like your son. She doesn't want to read, but once she starts she really gets into the book. She read "Julie of the Wolves" recently for school, and was so into it, she started sobbing when the leader of the wolf pack was killed.

I love this post! The main 2 reasons why? My 5yo says broccoli is one of her favorite foods and our 2yo likes it a whole lot too. It doesn't even have to be covered in cheese, they just like it. (I have freakazoid kidlets, apparently.)

And secondly, you had to convince your son to read HP & SS, and my kidlets asked for it as bedtime story book, even though it has no pictures and it took us almost 6 months to even GET to Hogwarts. We're still working through book 1 right now (slow going when you only read 5-6 pages a night), but they haven't lost interest!

It just shows that kids are so so different and sometimes all it takes IS those first 50 pages! Glad he's liking it!

A work colleague kept telling me how Terry Pratchett was brilliant and I kept ignoring this until she lent me her dog-eared copy of Mort and told me to take my time with it. I didn't touch it for two months - thought I'd rumour her - thought I'd skim through and then return it then pretend I liked it. A few years later and I've got all his books and can't wait for the next one!!

Now that a good mom! Way to go! It's the most wonderful feeling when your children finally love reading. And it has everything to do with finding 'THE' book for them. Of course, you can't go wrong with Harry Potter. One of my kids struggles with reading, and we kept trying new books on him. It was a huge paycheck moment when I caught him reading 'Fablehaven' on his own, and he was still up reading at midnight!

Oh i LOVE it!! Yeah you! I need to light a fire under my daughter when it comes to reading. She starts things and never finishes. Though we kind of cheated on HP and listened to it. She's on book 3 now. He he he.

Love this story. My husband and I bought the first HP for our daughter, and started reading it out loud. She and I didn't get it...so he read it cover to cover. A few months later we tried again...bingo. We are ALL now addicted...and both my daughter and my husband seem to know every trivia question ever asked about Harry.

Aww, that's awesome! Glad he got into it. The first book is a little slow to start. I liked it, but my sister has confessed she put it down the first time she started Harry Potter, only to pick it up again later.

Speaking of her, I got her into a few books this year, though she doesn't like to read much. I told her to read the Hunger Games (even though I hadn't yet, but I knew everyone was raving about it), and I persuaded her into reading Percy Jackson. I wish she would get into more stuff though because her commentary makes series infinitely more awesome (i.e. hilarious).

It's totally awesome that you got your son to read HP. That's the book that will do it! Looks like he's powering on without any nudging from you. I love recommending books to family/friends/students.:)

It's totally awesome that you got your son to read HP. That's the book that will do it! Looks like he's powering on without any nudging from you. I love recommending books to family/friends/students.:)

This is such a wonderful story, and I'm glad you convinced him to read the book. He'll get hooked on more and more stories, and transfer that habit onto more and more challenging work and schoolwork. I remember being a big reader of comic books as a kid, and that certainly helped me transition into literature and textbooks later on.

Yay for your son reading HP! I REALLY hope my daughter will read it some day. She's only 5. I will start reading them to her when she gets a little older I think. My mom used to read Mark Twain books to me and I LOVED it.

That's awesome! I have misplaced my copy of the first HP, otherwise I would have made my son read it before now... but he has come up with his own favorites and actually gotten me to like them! Like Artemis Fowl and the How to Train Your Dragon series... me and one of my sisters always trade new books we've read with each other, and we usually like them. I love sharing reading!

I keep telling my son he'd enjoy Hunger Games, but so far, not much interest. With his Lang. Arts class at school, they're forced to read classics and he doesn't like it at all. I'm sad that this year, reading has become a drudgery for him.

Turning kids on to reading is a wonderful thing to do. I have grand-nieces and nephews who only receive books from me, and they've even made it a tradition to open my package as soon as it arrives...of course, I'm not 100% sure if it's the books or the goodies I include, but I'll pretend it's the books. :)

it's been a long, long time. i don't have the confidence to know when someone will like something the way you did to your son. years ago i gave my dad a steven king book to read, and he scoffed, but he ended up reading it and enjoying it. it was the stand. my dad liked king's anti-establishment view of the american power structure. yeah, it was cool to see my dad read a 1,300 page book he couldn't imagine enjoying at the outset.

On the topic of blogs and love. I love to blog. My little sis sometimes laughs at how moved I am by books. I never knew if she read any of my posts. My most recent post said "This book makes me want to hug all my best friends." A few minutes after posting it she came to my room and gave me a hug. She said "I need to hug MY best friend." She reads every post. She cares because I do. I love my darling Bella to death. Just thought you might like this story.

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